Equities Update

This will be a short week for the US financial markets. Exchanges are closed today, monday in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

Starting Tuesday, earnings season will start to heat up with a bunch of companies scheduled to report, the big names among are Intel, Apple and Merril Lynch.

All eyes on Apple: Apple seems to be on everybodys lips theese days, thus three brokerage analysts have positively revised their forecasts within the past 30 days. The current consensus estimate calls for the recently renamed company to report profits of 78 cents per share, a penny above the month-old projection. The Most Recent Consensus is more bullish at 80 cents per share. Apple has topped expectations by a margin of 10 cents or better during three outof the past four quarters. The stock rose notably this week following the unveiling of the iPhone, but federal authorities are investigating a back-dated option grant awarded to CEO Steve Jobs and the company is being sued over the "iPhone" name, so there are factors outside of earnings that could affect the stock price. Apple will report on Wednesday, Jan 17, after the close of trading.